Drabble challenges!
by joudama
Summary: On my writing journals, I do drabble challenges.  Here are the results.
1. Twisted: Dream a Little Dream

Title: Dream a Little Dream

Drabble Challenge: Twisted Commentfic - take a prompt and twist it

Prompt: Angeal, Genesis, Sephiroth - A quiet night in.

"Seph," Angeal had said, putting his hand on Sephiroth's shoulder. Sephiroth had felt his eyes go wide at that-it was so unexpected, for Angeal-or anyone, for that matter-to touch him. He was used to the scientists in Hojo's damnable lab touching him, but-

"Get some sleep," Angeal finished, sounding serious. "Even you need to rest some times."

Sephiroth rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I have a meeting in an hour. I can not."

"Yeah, you can," Angeal said, taking his hand away and putting his hands on his hips. "You have an alarm clock. Get a short nap in, or else I'll hit you with Sleep. That mission was not easy," Angeal finished, frowning faintly. "Nothing about this damned war is," Angeal muttered under his breath. Angeal shook his head, as if to clear it, then gave Sephiroth a mock stern look. "A nap, Seph. Go," he finished, making shooing gestures with his hand, and Sephiroth decided perhaps Angeal was right.

He had to be more tired that he thought. It was the only way to explain why he was still so shaken by Angeal having put his hand on Sephiroth's shoulder.

It had been a long time since he dreamed of the labs. But he did, dream of scientists and being tested, and the weight of the hands of the scientists holding him down to take samples from him, or when they were testing his pain thresholds.

Always, always, straps around him and hands on his shoulders, holding him down, trapping him, he couldn't get up, he was trapped he was-

"-late! Sephiroth! Wake up! Your meeting started five minutes ago!" Angeal's voice yelled from the other side of the door to his quarters, and Sephiroth, woken by the sounds of Angeal banging on his door and yelling, sat up, his fingers still clutching the sheets in tense fists.

He stared blankly at the clock, knowing he would be late for the meeting, and not _caring_. He wanted to stay where he was until the shadows of the lab faded and he could go outside the see the sun, feel it and know that, for now, he was free.

But he wasn't. He wasn't free. He was ShinRa's creature, as much as he had ever been Hojo's.

"Ah. Coming. Thank you!" he yelled back, enough to carry, then he pulled himself upright, out of the bed, and back into his uniform, into the trappings of ShinRa's Perfect SOLDIER.

And when Angeal, laughing, patted his shoulder again when he came out, Sephiroth knew by the way a flinch ran through him and Angeal pulled his hand away, looking upset, that knew he would never, truly, be free.


	2. Twisted: Someone to Watch Over Me

Title: Someone to Watch Over Me

Drabble Challenge: Twisted Commentfic - take a prompt and twist it

Prompt: Kunsel sees everything Zack does

No, sir. I don't know why I'm here.

What? It's about Zack? What ha-what?

Oh.

I can explain, sir! It's not-we're friends, sir. We've been friends since boot camp. Well, rivals, too, but that's why we got to be friends. Always trying to outdo each other. I hate to admit it, but he was better. That was why he got Gen. Angeal's attention. I'm not surprised Angeal took a shine to him, everybody did. Zack's got a way of making people like him.

I just wanted to get to know him better, since he seemed so outgoing. He'll tell you everything but won't tell you anything, y'know? Says a lot without saying anything at all. That's how that started. I was just curious.

No, sir.

Yes, sir. But-

Well, I had to, sir! If he won't tell people things, it's like this mystery. I started keeping an eye out on him because it was like a game. And he's not so bright; he needs someone to keep an eye on him. That's all it was.

I see, sir. No, sir.

But we're friends, sir. That's why he can't keep secrets like he does. And it all keeps me one step ahead of him, and-

What? I'm being what? To Junon?

I...this isn't fair, sir! I didn't do anything wrong!

Yes, sir. Thank you sir.

Whew. Thank the gods that's over. What in Hel's name was that? And they're transferring me to _Junon_, and over _that_? They seriously think I'm _stalking_ the guy?

Junon's a little far away, but...well. I'll manage, getting shipped out there.

No matter what, Zack'll always need someone to watch over him.


	3. Twisted: If Not an Angel, then

Title: If Not an Angel, then-

Drabble Challenge: Twisted Commentfic - take a prompt and twist it

Prompt: Zack and Cloud, feathers!

Maybe he wouldn't have worried so much, if the feathers had been white.

The mako had done strange things to Cloud...or maybe not just the mako, but everything that madman they called a scientist had. Zack wondered, sometimes, if Cloud hadn't fled into his own mind to get away from whatever Hojo had done to him.

Cloud had had it worse, that much Zack knew.

And now he had wings...wings as black as Genesis' had been. One large wing and then a smaller one, beneath it, and both of them rested uneasy.

Zack knew what that wing meant-had seen what happened to the people who had them. Genesis, Angeal...

He didn't know what exactly Hojo had done to Cloud, but he knew enough.

"Sorry, kid," he said softly, one day when the wings twitched and battered at him, raging somehow despite Cloud's _stillness_.

Once, he'd told Angeal they were angel's wings. And maybe, if Cloud's had been like Angeal's, he could have told himself that again.

But they were black, and he knew what madness those wings meant, and a little more blood on his hands didn't matter any more.


	4. Backstory: Yellow Hair

Title: Yellow Hair

Drabble Challenge: Backstory drabble

Prompt: Cloud, and being the child of a single mother in Nibelheim

Josef tilted his head up with a sniff, his lip curling up as he did. Heinrich and Oliver were right behind him, like they always were. There wasn't much to do, now that school was out for the day.

Well, there were always things to do, and that was why Josef was where he was right now.

It was Wednesday, so Tifa had gone right home after school, because she had a piano lesson. Which meant there was no one to get in their way.

"Aww, where you goin', Cloud?" Josef said, the smirk curling into a smile.

"_Home_," Cloud said sharply, shoving his schoolbooks into his battered rucksack. It was old and tattered and probably had been before Cloud Strife every got it. Josef figured he'd be doing Cloud a favor if he pitched it into the class woodburning stove next winter.

"Heh, Momma's boy, running home to Momma now that his _girlfriend's_ not here to protect him," Heinrich said tauntingly. "Momma's boy, momma's boy, where's your daddy, Momma's boy?"

Cloud narrowed his eyes and shoved his stuff in faster.

"He hasn't got a dad. Everyone knows his momma's trash," Oliver said, crossing his arms. "Stupid yellow-haired trash and a stupid yellow-haired trash son."

"Leave my momma alone!" Cloud yelled, and that's when Josef the fun was about to _really_ get started.


	5. Backstory: Cállate

Title: Cállate

Drabble Challenge: Backstory drabble

Prompt: What any or all of the Turks picture when they think 'home'

AN: The language choice comes from Rude's Japanese voice actor saying he always imagined Rude to be Hispanic. Unfortunately, I speak no Spanish, so the Spanish may not be correct. I specifically left it in Spanish, because it's Rude's POV, and for him, that "dialect" is also "home."

"_No me importa lo que haces, pendejo!_"

And then the sound of sobbing.

Every day, coming home from school, it was the same thing; some variation on a theme-his father's drinking, and his mother's tears.

He stayed in his room. It was safer there, a little quieter. It was easier to stay in here and try his best to ignore everything. He stayed there, until the yelling turned into screams and the screams turned into silence with only the occasional sound of blows, and then there was a door slamming, and only the muffled sounds of tears.

Rude wiped his face and finally crept over to the door, and out, into the living room, where his mother was crying.

"_¿E-e-e-es-es-est-es-estás b-b-b-bi-bi-bien, mamá?_" he managed to finally stutter out, the words, like they _always_ did, tripping half-formed and clumsy out of his mouth.

His mother looked at him, disgusted. "_Cállate, mocoso inútil! Ni siquiera se puede hablar sin tartamudear! Cállate hasta que pueda hablar correctamente!_" she snapped, wiping a trail of blood off the corner of her lips as she threw the closest thing she could find at him, and Rude, breath hitching, fled back into his room without another word, and vowed not to say _anything_ else, not until he could finally do it _right_.


	6. AU: The Poet and the Warrior

Title: The Poet and the Warrior

Drabble Challenge: AU

Prompt: Fae!FFVII

Angeal sighed faintly. Genesis was in one of his moods now, as he always was when it had been rubbed in his face that it was Sephiroth who had the favor of Queen Jenova. Angeal himself couldn't understand why Genesis was so determined to gain her favor; those who did usually regretted it, and Genesis, as pretty as he was, was only a poet at the court (albeit one, yes, famed for his words being as pretty as his face) whereas Sephiroth...

Angeal considered himself lucky that the queen barely paid him any attention, other than tasking him with trying to calm one of the more troublesome of the human children who had been spirited away here long ago; Zack Fair may have only been human, but he got into more trouble than half the true fair folk, and sometimes Angeal wondered who had gotten the short end of the stick, them or the human parents left with a changeling.

Some days, he was _quite_ convinced the changeling had to have been less trouble.

Genesis was pacing angrily, and that was never a good sign. "I will show her what I am capable of," he said under his breath, and Angeal didn't trust the gleam in Genesis' eyes.


	7. AU: Out of the Frying Pan

Title: Out of the Frying Pan

Drabble Challenge: AU

Prompt: Dragon riders

Angeal reached up and laid a steadying hand on the dragon's flank. "Easy now, boy. Calm down. I said calm-never mind," he said, shaking his head and just focusing on trying to settle the rather angry red dragon that was almost ready to start spitting fire. "It's all right now; no need to get all ornery," he said, biting back a smile. "It's a learning experience, OK? How else is the kid going to learn? Do it for me, OK?" he said, and was rewarded with a plume of warning smoke erupting from the dragon's mouth.

"...Y'know what, maybe I'll go see if I can train on Sephiroth instead. He's a lot calmer," Zack said, his eyes wide, and apparently, he said the exact wrong thing, because that was when Genesis _really_ started snorting out flames.


	8. AU: Detention Duty

Title: Detention Duty!

Drabble Challenge: AU

Prompt: High school AU!

"...and then he threw the eraser at my head!" Zack wailed, and Angeal had the hardest time fighting back a grin. That sounded like Gen, all right.

"Well, Zack, you know you can't do that sort of thing," he finally said, just as he lost the battle against the grin.

"But Mr. Hewley, English class is boooooring," Zack wailed melodramatically. "Especially when Mr. Rhapsodos starts quoting things. It's like he won't shut up! Oh, wait, I don't think I should have said that..." Zack said, looking guilty.

"You're already in detention," Angeal said, trying not to laugh. "Just be glad I got detention-monitor duty this week, and not Mr. Rhapsodos. Or Mr. Hojo," Angeal said raising an eyebrow. Sephiroth was notorious for how strict he was when he was stuck with detention duty, to the point where some kids and begged for suspension instead. But then, very few students in detention liked finding themselves with 'busywork' that consisted of pages upon pages of high-level calculus.

...although, Angeal thought with a chuckle, he suspected very highly Zack would have gotten off fairly lightly with Seph, had he found out Zack was in here because of just what it was he'd managed to do to Gen's copy of Loveless.

Omake: _(stemming from a convo on how detention with Seph would suck, until… "And then Zack got ahold of his detention schedule and began Operation: Get Mr. Hojo To Lighten Up, Or At Least Crack A Smile.")_

"Sephiroth, shouldn't you just give it up?" Angeal said, shaking his head. "You don't have to write up everything for his permanent record."

Sephiroth gave him a glare. "Favoritism is unbecoming, Mr. Hewley."

Angeal rolled his eyes. "It's got nothing to do with favoritism, and everything to do with the fact that Zack's file will no longer fit in the file cabinet."

"That makes it all the easier for me to ind it for the next time," Sephiroth said flatly, and put a paperweight down on the folder to close it.


	9. AU: The OTHER Problem with Puppies

Title: The OTHER Problem with Puppies

Drabble Challenge: AU

Prompt: literal puppyverse, with "kemonomimi & fluffy tails & all"

"Hide me!" Zack wailed as soon as he saw Cloud. Cloud's eyes went wide.

"Wha-?" Cloud managed. That was as far as he got before Zack grabbed him by the arm as he ran by. "Zack, what are you-let me-I'm on duty!" he spluttered as Zack beelined for a door.

"You're officially commandeered," Zack said, then yelled "C'mon, c'mon, open!" at the door, while looking furtively at the elevators. The door opened, and Zack ran through, still dragging Cloud behind him.

"Zack!" Cloud finally yelled.

Zack whimpered, but kept right on making his way for an exit at top speed, Cloud struggling behind him, and didn't stop until they made it out of the ShinRa building. "It's Sephiroth. He's got _flea powder_!" Zack said mournfully, his tail tucked between his legs, and he took a second to scratch just as mournfully at his ears.


	10. jouverses: That's What Friends Are For

Title: That's What Friends Are For

Drabble Challenge: joudama!verse

Prompt: Puppyverse: Cloud's birthday party

"So, you know what's coming up next week, right?" Zack said cheerfully as soon as he got in Sephiroth's office.

Sephiroth looked up from his computer. "You know you're supposed to buzz before you come in?"

"The door was open!" Zack said, looking wounded. "If it's not locked, that means 'Come on in'!"

Sephiroth stared at Zack. "No, it does no..._never mind_," he said, seeing how Zack had started to wilt. "_What_ is next week, Zack?"

Zack instantly perked up, as if someone had waved a double McMoogles burger in front of his nose. "Cloud's birthday, Seph!"

Sephiroth still had not quite gotten used to Zack calling him "Seph." Angeal had done it once or twice, but it had thrown Sephiroth sufficiently that Angeal had stopped-something that had been oddly painful, in a way Sephiroth couldn't quite put his finger on.

"It is his birthday. And?" Sephiroth said, wondering why Zack was bringing it up.

"Soooo, we have to take him out to celebrate! He'll be hitting sixteen, which is a pretty big deal! What kind of friends would we be if we didn't take him out to celebrate being legally an adult?" Zack said, his jaw hanging open. He grinned suddenly. "I remember my sixteenth birthday. Oh, man, it was so awesome."

Sephiroth felt slightly at a loss. Cloud would be technically an adult; why exactly that required a big celebration was beyond him-the boy was already in the army and shouldering adult responsibilities; there would be no difference between the day before his birthday and the day after.

But there was something in the excited way Zack was bouncing that made Sephiroth acutely aware that he was indeed missing something. His own date of birth was something that held no ties to him and nothing that was 'celebrated', other than being a change on the numbers in his data in Hojo's lab.

He finally grasped on to something to stave off the feeling of alienation creeping in on him. "Lieutenant. I am not Cloud's _friend_. I am a commanding officer, it would be-"

Zack made a noise Sephiroth could only describe as "rude." "Whatev, Seph. Listen, you do your paperwork, just keep Friday night next week clear, got it? No shipping out, no paperwork, no nothing! I am the party master; I'll arrange everything. Just show up and bring a present. Got it?" Zack finished, crossing his arms and giving Sephiroth a stern look.

A stern look on Zack's face was...strange to say the least, and Sephiroth felt a smile tugging at his lips. "Yes, sir," he said, letting the smile win, and Zack lit up.


	11. jouverses: Shui bao

Title: Shui bao

Drabble Challenge: joudama!verse

Prompt: TTYKNAP - Reno, cuddling

AN: Reno and Jie are about 8 and 9, and this is before "Things that Go Boom." Same language rules apply, where things spoken in "Wutai" are in italics, except for when Reno doesn't understand that word yet.

Jie yawned suddenly and rubbed his eyes. "_I'm_ lei le," he said. "_I wanna go to_ shui."

"Wha?" Reno said, blinking. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. It was pretty late, almost ten o'clock, but Jie's mom hadn't come home yet, so Reno had stayed over and they had spent the whole afternoon watching TV and playing. Then it had gotten dark, and there was food _and_ heat at Jie's place, so he just sort of stayed-he hadn't wanted to go out in the cold all alone just to be stuck by himself with no food and maybe no heat. It was nice at Jie's place.

Reno yawned, and blinked at the TV. It was boring TV now, just some people talking about some fire or something. But he blinked at it and watched, because the lady had a nice voice. He felt his eyes drifting shut, and he fought it a few times before his head dropped.

It only seemed like a minute passed, but suddenly something was shaking him. He blinked sleepily. "What?"

"Gai shui biao le," Jie mumbled, rubbing his eyes and tugging at Reno's arm. Reno was too tired to even try to figure it out, and let Jie haul him up. "_Guan_ the TV," he said, one hand gesturing vaguely in the direction of the TV, and Reno groped for the remote and flipped it off as Jie sleepily turned off the heater, then Reno stumbled after Jie towards Jie's bedroom.

It was the middle of winter, and Jie's room was _cold_. The heater hadn't been on back there, and they could see their breath. It was cold enough to sting Reno almost out of his tiredness, just for a little while.

Jie changed into a pair of pyjamas, and Reno shivered, wishing he was warm. Jie suddenly pushed a pair of his old pyjamas at Reno, and they were thick and warm, so Reno changed into them quickly, his teeth starting to chatter.

There was only one bed, but they were small, and it was cold. They got under the covers quickly, covering their heads and huddling next to each other.

Jie was warm, and it was _cold_.

Reno moved closer to him, and Jie moved closer to him, and the two of them curled up against each other. After a few minutes, Reno, huddled against his friend and covered in blankets, finally felt warm again. His eyes began drift shut again, and, surrounded by warmth and the low, steady sound of Jie breathing deeply as he nodded off, drifted into sleep.


	12. jouverses: She's a Beaut

Title: She's a Beaut!

Drabble Challenge: joudama!verse

Prompt: HC - How'd Zack get that bike again?

AN: This is based on the fugmobiles that Zack drove when they were on the run in CC, and how incredibly _fug_ the flower carts he built for Aerith were. XD

"Zack..." Cloud started, blinking. "What under the Heavens _is_ that?"

Zack beamed. "My new bike! I'm gonna need one if I'm gonna be delivering stuff all over the world! Chocobos hate me, remember?"

Tifa snickered from behind Cloud. "I don't think 'hate' is quite the right word, Zack."

"I told you, we never speak of that thing with the chocobo again," Zack said firmly, blanching slightly at the memory.

Cloud shook his head, ignoring the digression. "That is not a bike. That is a clunker."

"Is not!" Zack said defensively. "She just needs a little elbow grease, and she'll be a beaut!"

"No, Zack. She will never be a 'beaut'," Cloud said. "I remember some of the, uh, vehicles you picked out for us when we were on the run last year."

"They all ran great!"

"Yeah, they did," Cloud said, conceding that point.

"But they all looked like something someone's grandma would drive," Tifa finished helpfully.

"Hey!" Zack said defensively.

Cloud ignored him, and crouched by the very old looking motocycle Zack had picked out, giving it a quick once-over.

"Well?" Zack said, looking oddly nervous.

Cloud poked at a few parts, then stood up. "Your sense of style sucks," he said flatly. And it was true-it did. But once he'd gotten a look at the bike, it was obvious that it had once been a good one, but someone had 'modified' it to make it more like a draft horse than a thoroughbred. But once he started stripping off the extra bits and replaced a few parts... "But she's in great shape. She probably runs great. But we have to work on the outside, and it's going to need some modifications if you're going to seriously use it for tearing around the planet."

Zack lit up. "But it's definitely a good bike!" he said proudly, and Cloud blinked.

"Ask me in a week," he said, and Zack grinned just as Tifa sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering something uncharitable about men and their toys as she did.


	13. jouverses: The Exit Festival

Title: The Exit Festival

Drabble Challenge: joudama!verse

Prompt: Middish!verse (an AU omake): Mama's matzahballs

Sephiroth had never gone on vacation before, but now had the deep desire to be very, very far away from where he was, preferably with something very, very alcoholic in his hands.

He had been aware that all the different areas of the planet had their own little illogical holidays and festivals and beliefs. Some of them even seemed rather nice, if quaint-the festival for the dead in Wutai to appease vengeful spirits, the light festival in the Gurljia region.

He had not, however, been aware that these holidays, festivals, and beliefs could _drive people insane_.

And truly, that was the only way to describe what had happened to Genesis and Angeal.

"NO! You can not eat those, NO!" Angeal screamed at an unwitting trooper, one who had taken one look at the...whatever it was scraped out of Hojo's lab masquerading as 'rations' and beelined for the small stand of "Exit Festival Food." The food there did not look at all exciting, but bland-nothing but large, unleavened crackers, a strange, thin soup with bread balls inside it, and an oddly _slimy_ fish-was certainly better than...Sephiroth didn't exactly know what it was that was currently on his plate. Since he had gotten out of the labs, he had gone from the nutritionally optimized meals prepared for him then to the food prepared for all troopers.

It was, to be honest, the only thing he regretted about leaving the labs.

"Bastard! That is not for you!" he yelled. "You can eat real food, get away from that!"

The trooper went wide-eyed, dropped the large cracker back, and started backing away with his hands raised in an "I surrender" gesture.

Angeal glared until the trooper ran for the hills, the picked up the cracker and brought it back to the table.

"_Ale tseyn zoln bay im aroysfaln, not eyner zol im blaybn oyf tsonveytung_," Angeal growled under his breath, and Sephiroth decided to ignore it-anyone invoking regulation 109.B on language use against Angeal or Genesis during the Exit Festival risked their own lives, and Sephiroth was no fool.

"The next _shtick drek_ who tries to steal our food, I set on fire," Genesis said, sounding surly, and poking at his soup. "Angeal, when is your mother's package of food getting here? I need real matzo ball soup, not this _farkakte drek_!"

Angeal crammed an edge of the cracker in his mouth. "It should have been here last week!" he growled from around it. "It's not my fault ShinRa's _farkakte_ mail can't stop with the sucking! Whoever is holding it up, may the gods bless him with three people: one should grab him, the second should stab him and the third should hide him."

Sephiroth looked down at his...whatever the meal was, then back at Angeal's cracker and Genesis' soup, and thought to himself that there were still four more days to go.


	14. jouverses: Take It to the Bank

Title: Take It to the Bank

Drabble Challenge: joudama!verse

Prompt: Puppyverse - "Ever notice that 'what the hell' is always the right decision?"

Cissnei stared at Zack. "You _are_ out of your mind," she finally said flatly. "The _both_ of you," she said, giving Reno the same "You have lost it" look.

"Hey, I never had a mind to begin with," Reno said with a grin, and Zack grinned.

"Good one!"

"...I never should have introduced you two," Cissnei muttered under her breath.

"Babe, that was one of your better ideas!"

"Call me 'babe' again and I rip out your small intestines with my pumps," Cissnei snapped, and Reno just rolled his eyes.

"You two been friends how long, an' she's still this uptight?" Reno said, giving Zack a disbelieving look.

"You've been working with her how long, and she's still this uptight?" Zack shot back, and Cissnei barely managed to hold back a scream.

"You two are unbelievable!" she finally yelled. "I can't believe you want me to help you with this harebrained scheme to get _General Sephiroth_ to enter a chocobo race! Reno, why under the heavens would you agree to that?"

Reno gave her a look. "Because I'll be betting on him, that's why! Do you have any idea how much you could make? You've seen him on a chocobo!"

Cissnei froze, and the wheels in her head started turning, and a smile slowly lit up her face.

"The general _does_ need to, um, cut loose and let his hair down. So to speak. So what the hell?" she said, and could all but hear her bank account begin to sing.

"Right answer!" Zack said with a grin.

"'What the hell' always is. Ain't you noticed that by now?" Reno shot back, and the three of them began to _plan_.


End file.
